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ONEFAN51

There can be no tomorrow if there is no today
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Member Since: 8/2010  Last Seen: 4/11/2012

Judge Frank Johnson fought against racial inequality in Alabama

Seeded on Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:23 PM EST
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Johnson's subsequent decisions on public accommodations forced the integration of libraries and agricultural services. While cities and businesses in the South grudgingly submitted to the Court's decisions, local school boards continued to drag their feet on school integration. In Lee v. Macon County Board of Education (1963), Johnson issued the first statewide desegregation order

Judge Frank Johnson was a man of courage and conviction.  He believed in the judicial system and fairly applied the law to all the citizens of Alabama, in spite of overwhelming resistance.

The judge and his family received constant death threats. His elderly mother's house was bombed, but she escaped injury and refused to move.

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Poorer districts of many states, including Alabama, had their voting strength diluted through arbitrary and unequal legislative districts. In the case of Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1961), Judge Johnson found that the city of Tuskegee had attempted to dilute black voting strength by redrawing the city limits to exclude black voters; Johnson struck down the new city plan as unconstitutional

Judge Frank Johnson was once considered by some as the de facto governor of Alabama.

Mind CoH please.

  • 2 votes
Reply#1 - Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:27 PM EST
Radio Free America

Thank you for this seed. How uplifting. Great example what one person is able to do. He was a brave person. The Civil Rights Movement may have been stymied without Judge Johnson. He fought as hard as anyone against racism. I received a history lesson today.

By 1975, the changes that Frank Johnson had helped make in American life werwidely accepted, but the years of isolation had exacted a terrible price from the Judge's family. The Johnsons' only child, an adopted son, suffered from prolonged mental illness, aggravated by years of harassment and ostracism. At the age of 28, he committed suicide.

Racism takes such a toll even on those who are not one of the oppressed/hated and do not buy into the hate. Those who do not buy into the hate are often more abused than the oppressed and they do not have any of the coping mechanism the oppressed group has learned over the years.

  • 1 vote
#1.1 - Thu Mar 1, 2012 6:45 PM EST
onefan51

Thanks, RFA. Your comments are really appreciated.

I hate to think what would have happened if it wasn't for Judge Johnson. I grew up in pre-Civil Rights Alabama, and as a young black boy at the time I was very aware how entwined racism was in every facet of the state's Jim Crow culture.

I agree. Racism not only affected the oppressed, but it affected everyone. Those who were not directly targeted by open racism, more often than not, will either rationalize, deflect, or project the actual problems associated with racism. Yes, their coping mechanism is lacking.

Again, thanks.

    #1.2 - Thu Mar 1, 2012 7:41 PM EST
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